Is it the pickup or the amp?

[12Gauge]

I had a LR Baggs active I beam pickup installed on my Larrivee L03. Now I know I don't have proper acoustic amp but what I do have is a Peavey Heritage tube amp with twin 12 in. speakers.

 

To me there is a lot of boominess on the lower strings and when I try to take it out with the amp, it sounds kind of shallow. I moved the pickup once by placing the low E end of the pickup more towards the sound hole about 2-3 mm. I didn't notice any difference. I wish I had access to an acoustic amp so I could be sure that it is the amp and not pickup placement.

 

Anyone ever have any experience installing one of these in an LO3 or any other guitar for that matter. I hate to be yanking this thing in and out so how critical is pickup placement?

 

Any advise?

[jjang1993]

i had the same problem with my dimarzio elemental pickup going into my traynor 30 watt amp.

some guitar amps just have a really boomy low end, because that was the case with my epi dot and my strat copy.

an acoustic amp will sound much better

[happy-man]

Could be related to many things. You've got pickup - preamp - chord - amp. I'm working with a guitar manufacturer right now. He's made his own piezo pickup for electric guitar. It sounds great with a short chord going straight in to his Fender amp, but as soon as he tries to put anything in between (volume pot, long chord, preamp) it changes the sound. He tried an LR Baggs CTRL-X preamp, and it colors the sound. I agreed to help him and built a very clean preamp/mixer which doesn't color. I talked to someone at LR Baggs to see if they are intentionally shaping the sound on their preamp and he told me "no". I don't think their simple preamp cuts the mustard. I didn't try to figure out their circuit, but it has two transistors which I'd guess are JFETs (that's what I'd use for a discrete design). I had the guitar guy A/B compare two preamps I made, one a JFET design and one with an op-amp, and my JFET amp wasn't totally transparent either. We're going with the op-amp design.


For the best acoustic sound, have everyone gather around in a small circle and stay away from electricity.

Scott O

[Terry Allan Hall]

I'm told that I-beam placement is pretty critical, but I have no 1st hand experience...have you access to a PA or an acoustic amp, to test the I-beam?

Or, maybe you can plug your guitar into your home stereo and listen over headphones?

[Danocoustic]

I'm told that I-beam placement is pretty critical, but I have no 1st hand experience...have you access to a PA or an acoustic amp, to test the I-beam? Or, maybe you can plug your guitar into your home stereo and listen over headphones?

Very much so.